Worlds Away is the story of a couple falling in love (aerialist Igor Zaripov and the American Erica Linz, both longtime Cirque acrobats).

“I came to the idea of these two people who meet in a real-world circus. She’s a young girl looking to escape her life. She sees this aerialist and instantly falls in love with him, but when their eyes meet he slips and falls. He drops right through the circus ring into another world and drags her with him. They spend the rest of the film looking for each other”, says Academy Award-nominated director Andrew Adamson (Shrek, The Chronicles of Narnia).

The actors journey through dreamlike sets, interwoven with acts taken from all of the Cirque’s Las Vegas shows: O, KÀ, Mystère, Viva ELVIS, CRISS ANGEL Believe, Zumanity and The Beatles LOVE. Cameron, who even shot some of the scenes himself perched high up in the air and wearing a harness, participated in this movie a lot more than usual.

The movie “is a circus, there are wires and harnesses, we get to appreciate the ingenuity of the staging and the costume designs,” explains Cameron. He says the audience truly feels “the experience of being in the show, not literally as a character, but to be up there on the stage as opposed to way up in the top seat”.

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Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away 3D is now screening at several Montreal theatres. And make sure to check out Cirque’s latest family-friendly show Saltimbanco, in Montreal December 19-30, 2012.

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(film fest fun) The final weekend of the Festival du Nouveau Cinema has arrived, but there are still plenty of all-new feature films, shorts and documentaries to see, from closing film Camille Redouble by Noémie Lvovsky to an autobiography of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman to concert films about Peaches and The Chemical Brothers, plus a multimedia, multi-DJ “Suicide Hotel” party on Friday night and closing party on Saturday night with DJ Thomas von PARTY, at Quartier Général. Meanwhile, the 4th edition of the Montreal Stop Motion Film Festival, October 19-21, screens over 70 new stop-motion animation films from Montreal and around the world.

(intrigue on stage) Explore the Plateau and Mile End neighbourhoods via a true Montreal creation: The Phénomena Festival, to October 26. The festival of music, performance and art, is a reinvention of the 10-year-old Festival Voix d’Amériques, dedicated to showcasing the beautiful, strange and poetic artistic voices in this city and further afield. see artist and musician Genisis P-Orridge on stage with spoken-word group Thee Majesty on October 20 at Cabaret du Mile End, in film The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye at Excentris, and with art showing at La Centrale; as well, see Kobol’s marionette show Voodoo at Usine C, Kabin tells 15 stories via 15 small booths on October 20, duo 2boys.tv span the history of their performance career in Generation on October 21, plus free music and performances every evening at 5 p.m. at Divan Orange, featuring Teen Sleuth, Free Opera Ensemble, Jef Barbara and many more, as well as free open mic nights at 11 p.m. at Casa del Popolo.

(frightful & delightful) Halloween starts early this year in Montreal. If you’re downtown at Place des Arts in the Quartier des Spectacles on Saturday around noon, don’t panic: the zombie apocalypse is not upon us, it’s just people dressed up for the Montreal Zombie Walk – join in if you’re zombie-inclined. Freaks of a different sort sing and dance for our pleasure in The Rocky Horror Show, garnering some great  reviews at Mainline Theatre, to October 20. And there’s also something a little freaky – in the most awesome sense – about DJ Food’s The Search Engine, an all-encompassing audio-visual experience like no other, screening in the dome of the surround-sound Satosphere at the SAT, to October 26.

(sports fans) A pro first for Montreal this week: the NBA Canada series pits the New York Knicks against the Toronto Raptors, October 19 at the Bell Centre. And while the NHL season is sadly on hold due to labour talks among hockey players and the league, the spirit of hockey is still strong in Montreal with national women’s hockey champions The Stars, featuring Olympic national team players Kim St-Pierre, Meghan Agosta, Caroline Ouellette and more. The Stars play Boston on October 20 at 5 p.m. and October 21 at 1 p.m. at Étienne Desmarteau Arena.
(tragedy & comedy) An epic 10th-century Japanese folk tale comes to life in choreographer Jiří Kylián’s Kaguyahime, The Moon, produced beautifully by Les Grands Ballet Canadiens, October 11-27. Quebecois playwright Suzie Bastien probes the human psyche in the dramatic The Medea Effect, at Theatre La Chapelle, to October 20. Old Montreal’s Centaur Theatre features Scapegoat Theatre’s take on Euripedes’ tragedy The Bacchae, to October 20, as well as Quebecois playwright Jean Marc Dalpé’s family drama August, An Afternoon in the Country. Meanwhile, the Segal Centre lightens the mood with Broadway musical Guys and Dolls to October 31, and well-known and even well-loved Montreal comedian and Just For Laughs festival veteran Joey Elias brings his One Man Show at Club Soda on October 21.

(urban art) The Montréal/Brooklyn collaborative contemporary art project makes its mark on the city’s gallery scene this weekend, highlighting the artistic similarities and differences between the two urban centres. On Friday and Saturday, new shows open at Centre Clark and artist-run centre articule, as well at galleries in the Belgo building – Galerie SAS, Optica, Galerie Division and Les Territoires – and down the street at Galerie de l’UQAM, featuring multi-artist Vidéozones exhibition (above), and the Musée d’art contemporain, featuring work by Janet Biggs and Aude Moreau.

(live music) Friday night is indie-rock alright with Cat Power playing tunes from her new album Sun at Metropolis, The Sea & Cake at Il Motore, Dragonette at the Corona Theatre, and Brooklyn electro duo Blondes at Le Belmont. Pittsburg rapper Wiz Khalifa, rolls into town with Juicy J, Chevy Woods and many others at Uniprix Stadium on October 20. Monday night goes punk with Off!, The Spits and Double Negative at Foufounes Electriques. On October 23, Dan Mangan brings his folk-rock sensibility to Theatre Corona, San Francisco’s Sic Alps play Divan Orange. The Jezabels rock Cabaret Mile End and Social Distortion shake up Metropolis. Montreal’s Papagroove release their newest album on October 24 at Theatre Plaza – free! Akousma 9, a festival of digital music, brings its immersive audio-visual wonders to Usine C, October 24-27. And the ‘80s are back with Air Supply in an “intimate evening” on October 25 at Metropolis.

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While Montreal is the city of festivals, and this includes film festivals, many locals love the Festival du Nouveau Cinema (or FNC) very best of all. This is because the festival’s combination of good taste (they have a crack cast of programmers) and good timing (the festival takes place in mid-October, which is prime time to premiere films that have played at the world’s biggest festivals, including Cannes, Toronto and Venice). And unlike those aforementioned festival, the FNC still has lots of space for regular spectators like you and me. So c’mon down!

At TIFF, for example, the lineup for Steve McQueen’s Shame was, literally, around two blocks. The British painter-turned-director (not the late American movie star), made Hunger a couple of years back, starring hot young actor Michael Fassbender. His latest, the story of a compulsive Manhattanite sex addicts, also stars Fassbender, as well as ingénue Carey Mulligan. The film has been winning prizes on the festival circuit (it won the prestigious FIPRESCI award in Venice) and was subsequently bought by Fox Searchlight, which means it’ll be released in theatres, but the FNC is your chance to see it first!

Along with McQueen’s sophomore effort, other world-class directors will be showing work at the festival. You’ve probably heard of Lars Von Trier, whose Melancholia stars Kirsten Dunst, Kiefer Sutherland and Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Pedro Almódovar, whose The Skin I Live In stars Antonio Banderas as demented and amorous plastic surgeon—both of them will premiere at the fest before their art-house releases.

Another don’t-miss event will be the premiere of Wim Wenders’ Pina, a 3D dance movie about German dancer/choreographer/company director Pina Bausch.

Speaking of 3D, the world’s first 3D erotic movie, by Hong Kong director Christopher Sun Lap Key, will be part of Temps 0, the FNC sub-program that shows risqué (and just awesomely bizarre) films from around the world. Among these, two new works from well-known Japanese directors Takashi Miike and Sion Sono, as well as the premiere of Assasin’s Creed: Embers, a film related to the popular video game that is made in Montreal by gaming giants Ubisoft.

As well as wicked premieres of world-class movies, there’s a filmmaker component to the festival as well—the FNC Pro program, co-sponsored by the National Film Board of Canada and others, offers mentorship and workshops to emerging filmmakers and media professionals.

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THE DETAILS

Festival du Nouveau Cinema, October 12-23.

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While Cannes and Toronto have the glitz and glamour of the Hollywood machine behind them and run festivals that overflow year after year with an ever more glitzy roster of American movie stars, some might say that all those red carpets distract from what’s truly important in a film festival: a massive list of movies from all the far-flung corners of the world that will probably never grace a Montreal screen again, all affordable and accessible. If you like your film-festival loose, large and somewhat democratic, the MWFF is for you!

The best news of all is that the Montreal World Film Festival is affordable and accessible to all—which is definitely not the case for any of the higher profile festivals we can think of. Want to stand outside in the rain waiting for a glimpse of Matt Damon and George Clooney? This is not your festival. But if you’re interested in seeing films from around the world, including any of an enormous documentary section consisting of 40 films from every corner of Earth, then run don’t walk to the Quartier des Spectacles for a film-festival experience unlike any other.

This isn’t to say that the MWFF is devoid of stars—in fact, the biggest star of all time on the French screen, Catherine Deneuve, will be present for a festival tribute. One of the Movies Under the Stars offerings of this year will be Claude Lelouch’s Les Demoiselles de Rochefort, a film that stars Deneuve. Lelouch, one of the greatest living French filmmakers, will also teach a master class at the festival.

Many directors owe major moments in their careers to the festival—for example, Japanese directors Takahisa Zeze (Life Back Then) and Masato Harada (Heartbreak Yakuza) are returning to the festival after showing previous films here, as does Belgian director Geoffrey Enthoven, whose The Over The Hill Band wowed audiences two years ago. This time, he’ll be premiering Come As You Are, a touching road comedy about a group of twenty something virgins who won’t let their handicaps get in the way of their deflowerings while on holiday in Spain.

If you’re a fan of world cinema, what could be better than ten days spent discovering unknown soon-maybe-to-be-classics by directors from 70 countries? Again, the best thing about the festival is the price tag: Along with free movies shown on steamy summer nights in front of Place des Arts, (this year’s theme: Hollywood, Bollywood, and the Girls), you can see 10 films for 65$, or purchase a special Cinephile pass for unlimited viewing.

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THE DETAILS

Montreal World Film Festival, August 18-28, 2011

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